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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

So She Grows Another Tooth Just As I'm About To Fall Asleep

How is anyone going to get around to sleeping with this red cheek showing up?

Some babies drool, some scream, others develop glow-in-the-dark rosy cheeks. This particular rosy cheek is courtesy of Shira's third tooth (first on the top), that has finally made an appearance after months of these cheeks. Speaking of cheeks, my mum told me this week that my grandmother's cheeks were so rosy as a baby that her mother was regularly accused of putting rouge on her. Rouge. As if Shira would sit still long enough for rouge. It seems that while Alyce received her name, it is Shira who carries on my grandmother's glow. How lovely.

Her new tooth isn't quite keeping Shira awake, so to speak, but it is keeping her nursing. Before I realized it, Shira was in bed with me last night for an hour. We were both mostly sleeping, sometimes awake, and always comfortable. See, that's where I get into trouble. She wakes up (last night it wasn't until two or three) and the zombie version of myself scoops her up and brings her to bed. She starts nursing and I'm back asleep in a few minutes. I have, since the moment she arrived, loved sleeping with Shira, as though I grew her just to keep me warm at night. While Matt and I love the idea of having our grown-up, child-free bed, if sleeping with Shira in bed with us meant that we'd all get a good night's sleep, we'd be happy to change our bed habits. But when she's not teething, Shira is a terrible sleep partner. It's true.

I expect another teething babe in bed with me tonight. I realize that this is doing very little for our efforts at sleep-training, but I've had enough experience with tooth pain in my own life to say no to her. Once again, she's playing me like a sucker.